Review 11

Rajeet Guha New School Homework 11 Revision is the ultimate step in crafting any story, which is in itself a labor of love. Even the most memorable stories from the most marquee authors in the pantheon of literature have come from copious amounts of time and energy being spent on it. The great realist Russian writer Anton Chekhov himself said that writerly talent was fused from diligence and perseverance. Creative writing incontrovertibly stems from original thinking and mental innovation but not solely. A writer’s genius is articulated not just through inventive ideas expressed in narratives but also through the painstaking process of revision with beads of sweat dripping down from the writer’s forehead and eyes that have reddened from a cornucopia of reading, writing, rereading and rewriting. Creative genius manifest in world class works of fiction stems not just from a sliver of inspiration but primarily from pitiless perspiration, the bulwark of literary creation. Every single element of fiction endures baptism by fire in an endless effort to produce a veritable work of art. Rewriting is a cathartic process for a writer where he is transfigured from a toothless tyro to a matured maven. Reader response in story workshops goes without saying in revising a story. It is through feedback from the educated and erudite audience that the writer understands the flaws and strengths of his work. It is with the pertinent and concrete feedback that writers reexplore their plots, themes, characters, symbols, points of view, etc. and endeavor to make their work flawless. Besides culling superfluous information, introducing new settings, discovering new themes, reevaluating point of view or making characterizations richer, it is imperative to be an unsparing and unrelenting critic of one’s work in one’s quest for perfection. Finally, it is advisable to often revisit the story after the passage of a few months. This often brings a new perspective and a fresh outlook to the story that it would have been devoid of previously. New revelations come after a break from the work of writing. Notes on Keith is a short piece of nonfictional writing by the highly decorated author Ron Carlson. Ron Carlson has written a short essay on what motivated him to write his short story Keith. He succinctly explains how he fleshed out the details of this story of his. Ron Carlson says that he hadn’t rehearsed or meticulously planned the story in his head like an essay. Rather, the story flowed spontaneously like a river and on its tumultuous journey like a great natural water body encountered unforeseen obstacles that compelled it to take other routes and trajectories that altered the themes, plots, symbols, motifs, voices and points of view of the story. As Carlson wrote the story, the story took on a life of its own over which Carlson had little control. The characters in the story spoke for themselves and had suddenly come to life like Pinocchio, who if I were to digress a bit was a pathological prevaricator. The story evolved as he wrote and rewrote. There was needless to say a lot of blood, sweat and tears expended to metamorphose a rough, unsophisticated first draft to a polished and finely wrought work of act that was majestically on display for the reception, pleasure and indulgence of the public. In the following paragraph, it will be expressed how Carlson tinkered about with the story and its competing narratives before settling on the finished product. Carlson said that the germination of the idea of this story came when he had gone to a hospital to look up one of his friends. In the corridor of this hospital he was stunned by the sight of a young and pulchritudinous female walking gingerly. He was perplexed as to what had driven that lady to come to the hospital as she was in the flower of her youth. It is later on while he taught high school children and witnessed its drama that he realized that the enigmatic woman that he had observed in the hospital and who was haunting him ever since had not been ill and instead had been taking a peregrination to the hospital on a mere whim. Other details came from a smorgasbord of other experiences. Moments of epiphany or Eureka moments organically evolved while writing multiple drafts of the story. Keith is a gem of a short story. It is one of Ron Carlson’s finest stories. It is part of his collection of short stories titled ‘Hotel Eden’. It is a short story written in the third person omniscient point of view. The point of view is subjective rather than objective. The public might mistakenly think that Keith is the protagonist of the story. Keith is the antagonist of the story. The protagonist of the story is Barbara. Barbara’s personality and life are totally transformed after she meets Keith, her chemistry lab partner in the senior year of high school. Barbara is an all-rounder. She tops her classes and is a superb sportswoman. She also has an abundance of leadership and managerial skills. She has a dashing and handsome boyfriend who lavishes gifts on her. The other girls in the class are green with envy towards her. The icing on the cake is that she has been accepted at Brown University, an Ivy League school that so many dream of going to. Nonetheless, Barbara is not a careerist through and through. She is not always her own person and does not always display a mind of her own. She seems to have shackled herself with wrong and misleading notions of feminine nature that have been foisted upon by the constructs of patriarchal society. She is not yet a completely liberated woman in her mind and believes in playing second fiddle to Brian, her swashbuckling boyfriend. Subsequently she is caught in the horns of a dilemma as to whether she should go to Brown in Rhode Island or instead stay at home and attend a local university with Brian, her knight in shining armor who is cavalierly guy and treats life with nonchalant insouciance. It is Keith, her shy, quirky and sphinxlike chemistry laboratory partner who craftily creates conflicts in her fickle mind. Keith cleverly disguises his latent dates with Barbara as innocuous, platonic meetings and stealthily unlocks the key to her heart. Keith, who is suffering from cancer and undergoing chemotherapy, seduces Barbara with a combination of chutzpah and enigmatic charm. Barbara falls out of love with Brian. Keith supplants Brian and Barbara is head over heels in love with Keith after his prolonged absence from school and terrible haircut make her realize that he is terminally ill. Barbara’s attraction to Keith partly stems from compassion and commiseration and partly from realizing Keith’s benevolent nature. Keith deftly makes Barbara understand that Brian with his cavalier attitude wants her interests to be completely subservient to his. Keith subtly hints to Barbara that Brian wants to rob her of her identity and wants her to genuflect before him. Keith enlightens Barbara with the fact that she should think of herself and her career first and foremost. Barbara, with the aid of Keith, understands that the world is her oyster. Subsequently she decides to attend Brown University and defenestrate Brian. Meanwhile in the melodramatic penultimate scene Barbara bids Keith a touching, tender and farewell at the airport. Keith passes away after some time. The penultimate scene witnesses a bittersweet ending. The story arouses pathos and compassion in the readers. The tragic tale has some foreshadowing as Keith’s baldness and his long absence from school insinuated the fact that he had cancer. The choice of chemistry laboratory instead of a physics, biology or computer laboratory suggested the narrative would have romance as a theme. The fact that they were chemistry lab partners purported that there would be amorous relations between. Finally, death is a theme. Death is the ultimate and undeniable truth in the lives of mortals. Tragic as it may sound, death trumps over love, romance, relationships and everything else in the fragile and evanescent lives of humans.